Information resources after you graduate
Learning to use Boolean operators and other search skills will help you with your course and make you more employable when you graduate.
Good information skills are useful in all areas of your life. After you graduate, they will be invaluable in any working environment. Subject-specific information resources used at college or university will be useful in the workplace if you continue in a specialised field. For example, as a lawyer, you will continue to use Lexis-Nexis, a legal information service providing full text of cases, legislation and journal articles. As a research biologist you will continue to use Biosis Previews, an abstracting and indexing database for researchers in the life science.
Even if you move away from the subject that you studied at college or university, the information skills learned there will be useful. Online information resources are as important in a general business context as in any specialised field. One example of the type of resource used in business is DialogWeb, a service providing access to business, scientific, intellectual property, and technical publications. Another is OneSource, an online service providing news, financial data, industry statistics, sales and marketing information.
These resources are expensive. Organisations paying for them only get value for money if their employees are efficient at using them. Developing effective information skills at university or college will make you an attractive candidate for employment by these organisations.
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